The Illustrated London Reading Book eBook

which nature had kindly denied to their malevolence,
and with shouts of applause and triumph see them plunge
them into each other’s hearts; they view with
delight the trembling deer and defenceless hare, flying
for hours in the utmost agonies of terror and despair,
and, at last, sinking under fatigue, devoured by their
merciless pursuers; they see with joy the beautiful
pheasant and harmless partridge drop from their flight,
weltering in their blood, or, perhaps, perishing with
wounds and hunger, under the cover of some friendly
thicket to which they have in vain retreated for safety;
they triumph over the unsuspecting fish whom they
have decoyed by an insidious pretence of feeding,
and drag him from his native element by a hook fixed
to and tearing out his entrails; and, to add to all
this, they spare neither labour nor expense to preserve
and propagate these innocent animals, for no other
end but to multiply the objects of their persecution.

What name would we bestow on a superior being, whose
whole endeavours were employed, and whose whole pleasure
consisted in terrifying, ensnaring, tormenting, and
destroying mankind? whose superior faculties were
exerted in fomenting animosities amongst them, in contriving
engines of destruction, and inciting them to use them
in maiming and murdering each other? whose power over
them was employed in assisting the rapacious, deceiving
the simple, and oppressing the innocent? who, without
provocation or advantage, should continue from day
to day, void of all pity and remorse, thus to torment
mankind for diversion, and at the same time endeavour
with his utmost care to preserve their lives and to
propagate their species, in order to increase the number
of victims devoted to his malevolence, and be delighted
in proportion to the miseries he occasioned.
I say, what name detestable enough could we find for
such a being? yet, if we impartially consider the case,
and our intermediate situation, we must acknowledge
that, with regard to inferior animals, just such a
being is a sportsman.

JENYNS.

* * * *
*

PETER THE HERMIT, AND THE FIRST CRUSADE.

It was in Palestine itself that Peter the Hermit first
conceived the grand idea of rousing the powers of
Christendom to rescue the Christians of the East from
the thraldom of the Mussulman, and the Sepulchre of
Jesus from the rude hands of the Infidel. The
subject engrossed his whole mind. Even in the
visions of the night he was full of it. One dream
made such an impression upon him, that he devoutly
believed the Saviour of the world Himself appeared
before him, and promised him aid and protection in
his holy undertaking. If his zeal had ever wavered
before, this was sufficient to fix it for ever.